Some of you may have noticed I’ve been rather quiet about my publishing news lately, and here’s why:
I GOT A BOOK DEAL!
That’s right! My Comedic, Cozy Fantasy Novel about a curmudgeonly old wizard who mentors “chosen ones” will soon be available in all major bookstores in the US, Canada, and the UK.
Let’s get the big stuff out of the way before I dig into the details:
When will it be published?
We’re aiming for Spring 2027!
Who is the publisher?
DAW Books, an imprint of the Astra Publishing House.
What else has DAW published?
Names like Patrick Rothfuss, Ben Aaronovitch and John Wiswell are high up there, but they have tons of authors on their list.
What is DAW Books?
They’re an American Sci-Fi and Fantasy publisher.
Why will it take so long to be published?
Publishing requires several rounds of edits, plus marketing, book cover designs, formatting, sending out ARCs, distribution, etc. It’s a whole thing!
How did this happen?
Okay, now for my journey to get to this point. I’ve already told you in previous posts all about where my writing journey started, how I got my Literary Agent, and that my Agent, Madison and I, went on Submission. So let’s skip ahead a bit to what happened after we went on Submission and what landed us the book deal.
Going on Submission
Madison put together a book query package, and on April 14th, 2025, my book was officially on Submission, meaning she started sending it out to editors/publishing houses. We only went out to a few to start, focusing on editors who published works with similar “vibes” to mine.
Madison created a shared spreadsheet where she could put up which editors she had submitted to and any updates on responses that came in. I was fully expecting crickets for a while. These editors are extremely busy; it was the start of summer, so a lot of people would be on holiday; and the Submissions process is notoriously slow!
First Offer
3 weeks into Submission, on May 1st, 2025, I got an email from Madison that a publisher was interested in my book and wanted to meet. We set up the meeting for May 5th, and they made an offer on my book.
After discussing it further with my Agent, we decided to pass on the offer. We determined the size of the deal and the distribution of the press didn’t match what I wanted for my debut novel.
1st offer: May 5th — We rejected
Second Offer
On May 22nd, 2025, Madison got a message from one of the editors she had submitted to. It was Aranya at DAW Books saying that she loved the novel and wanted to discuss further. She and Madison met and discussed the book on a call the next day, and Aranya agreed to send the book for “second reads”.
Second reads: The Editor sends the manuscript to others in their team to read and agree whether they, too, like the book enough to want to publish it.
After second reads, the Editor takes the book to “acquisitions”, where the leaders at the publishing house agree to take on the project.
Acquisitions: A publisher agrees to buy the rights to publish a book from an author.
A couple of short weeks later, my husband and I flew to Canada to visit family. On day 2 of our visit (May 28th, 2025), I received a message from Madison that the whole DAW team loved my book and wanted to move forward!
At the time, I was sitting on the patio at my in-laws’ house after dinner. I was rather stunned at the time and walked into the kitchen to tell my husband the tearfully exciting news. To celebrate, my Mother-in-Law created a ribbon with the title of the book and got some giant hedge cutters for an official ribbon-cutting. (The hedge cutters were too dull, and in the end we landed on scissors). But yay!! Here’s what Aranya (the Editor) said about my book:
“My whole team at DAW has read this, and they are all huge fans!! I got feedback like, “I was laughing out loud from the second page,” “Immediately endearing,” “It’s adorable”, and, “I loved it!” I’m so glad they enjoyed it as much as I did. I would absolutely love to set up a call with you and Alexis.”
2nd Offer: May 28th — We Accepted
Six weeks after we went on submission and we got an offer for a publishing deal! But of course, there was still a lot to do, all amidst the chaos of me travelling around Canada visiting family.
Next Steps
- We set up an initial meeting with the Editor and her marketing and publicity team.
- The Editor requested any upcoming work synopses, samples, etc., to review.
- We met on June 2nd, 2025, to introduce ourselves. We also discussed everything about my book, DAW’s plans for my author career, and any edits or changes we could implement to make the manuscript even better.
- DAW sent their Contract Deal Points on June 6th, 2025.
- Madison began negotiations with the DAW team. These went back and forth until everything was agreed upon.
- We officially struck the deal with DAW (meaning there were no more deal points to change) on June 18th, 2025, and I received a welcome message from Aranya.
- I signed the official contract with DAW on July 28th, 2025!!!
- I made some small(ish) initial edits to the manuscript based on our conversations with Aranya, and Madison forwarded these to the Editor at the end of August.
- Aranya wanted to change the book title, so we deliberated for a while on what to call it. We finally landed on a title mid-September.
- The announcement went out to Publisher’s Marketplace on September 22, 2025, so I could finally, publicly tell the world about my good news!
I had to wait a while before I could publicly announce the deal. We were deciding on a new title for the book that I had been calling “The Reluctant Mentor”, which we’ve now renamed to…
Hero Adjacent
Okay, Now What?
We’re far from the end of the journey! Aranya has my initial edits. She’s currently working through the full manuscript, then will send me an edit letter with other changes required.
In other words, I’ll be re-reading and editing my novel a lot in the coming months!
The Journey So Far
What a whirlwind! In February, I signed with my Literary Agent, Madison. By April, we went on submission with my novel. In May–June, we received two publishing offers. And by July, I had signed on with a publisher for my debut novel!
I’m so overjoyed. Being a traditionally published author has been my dream for as long as I can remember. It brought with it a lot of work, time, tears, and laughter, and I can’t wait to see where this journey takes me next.
Thank you all for going through it with me. And as always, there’s more to come!
P.S. You can check out my website for more details and updates at www.alexisveenendaal.com
Final Submission Stats
- Days on sub: 45
- Number of submissions: 10
- Number of passes: 4
- Number of offers: 2
